I LOVE in-town riding. One of the truly amazing things about this metro area is the amount of trail close-in to the money jobs. With MoCo, there were a ton of local riders with not enough trail. MoCo publicized that trail. With all of the new events at Patapsco, Fountainhead and the other super-popular trails, I just worry that we are loving the local stuff to death. There's word of a 100 miler at Patapsco now too. Don't get me wrong, I've done a bunch of 100s and I love them but pushing more riders onto already-popular trails seems like we are asking for trouble. Thankfully, we have great relationships with most of these managers and we pour a lot of resources into these trails, but I still think it's a valid point.

The races, for the most part, only benefit the promoter ($$) where the risks severely affect ALL of the local and future riders. It's worth discussing...

Good for NoVa, I wish them well. The MoCo provided a vehicle for connecting local trails with more trails, and I think it's a great benefit to the local MTB community. Hopefully it will continue to be managed in such a way that promotion of MTB takes priority over promotion of an individual/group/promotion company. And hopefully the NoVa "epic" will do the same for the community.

I agree it's not an "epic" ride, but what else are you going to call it? I guess you could call it the "NoVa metric century fully supported off-road enthusiast ride on dirt and probably a lot of asphault group ride". "Epic" is marketable.

Methinks I see the coming overuse of the word 'Epic' when it comes to mtn bike rides, especially close-to-town non-epic rides like anything that has to do with Wakefield...

mk

Haha. Agreed. "epic" is the new "extreme" and there is nothing epic nor extreme about touring through a bunch of suburban parks, regardless of mileage. Not saying it might not be a ton of fun or whatever, but when i think epic, im picturing big remote mtns, pretty much the polar opposite of the Nova strip mall culture. With all of that said, I'm getting ready to ride the "Pittsburg to DC Epic" in a couple of weeks.

I talked with some MORE folks about this in early December. Its an interesting idea, for sure. The whole area is my stomping ground, so I know it pretty well. The CCT north of Fairfax has a lot of good trail, as does Lake Fairfax and some of Great Falls and Riverbend. The issue is that there aren't a lot of options to make it into an actual loop (though opening the hiking-only trail that runs along the potomac from Riverbend to the end of Seneca Road would definitely allow some interesting options).

I'm looking forward to seeing what the ride options and loops will be.

Up next after this Epic will be the Lake Fairfax DH race, a slopestyle contest at FH's blue loop and an enduro event around the bowl at Wakefield.

I know you're being sarcastic, but there is some surprisingly decent trail in the area outside of Lake Fairfax. Granted, it will never be the equal of the shed or the GW forest area etc, but I could see an event like this doing very well (much like the MoCo).

The main reason to be excited IMO is that it could drive a lot of interest in the area trails, and expanding the network (much like the MoCo has for that area). The CCT south of the WOD has some good sections, but seems largely unmaintained social trail. Great Falls and Riverbend have a huge amount of potential, but a lot of the trails are closed to bikes and MTB interest in them seems low. I could see an event like this maybe starting the process of opening some of that up, which would be a good thing.

It was just a jab at the absurdity of the "epic-ness" of this idea. I don't necessarily disagree with you but I would rather bring awareness to new sections of possible trail without the MORE steamroller in tow. The last thing we need is yet another Laurel Hill or Wakefield.

It was just a jab at the absurdity of the "epic-ness" of this idea. I don't necessarily disagree with you but I would rather bring awareness to new sections of possible trail without the MORE steamroller in tow. The last thing we need is yet another Laurel Hill or Wakefield.

I understand what youre saying, but cracking Riverbend and (especially) Great Falls is probably going to take someone like MORE. I don't know who (if anybody) manages that hiking trail that runs along the potomac north of Riverbend. Riverbend is FFX county parks, and Great Falls is NPS.

I am on the organizing committee for the NoVA Epic; we will have 65, and 45 mile routes starting in Lorton and finishing in Lake Fairfax; and a 25 mile route in/around Lake Fairfax. The long routes will take advantage of the CCT and will include Laurel Hill, Giles Run, Accotink, Wakefield parks. It will, then, hit several more parks on the way to Lake Fairfax utilizing the CCT.
Later

I rode from Wakefield to Tamarack last Sunday with part of the organizers for this ride.
It's mostly paved trails from Wakefield to Oak Marr, then nice easy singletrack from there to Lk.FFX.
IMO, this ride is not worthy of the EPIC title because it's mostly riding on the CCT with some parks thrown in for some extra mileage.
If someone were to actually do some work and get the course run on the Bull Run trail and throw in Fountainhead, then it might be worthy of an EPIC ride.

I wish NVRPA would allow access on the Bull Run trail. That is some worthy stuff down there.

Yup...but it's been tried before. From my understanding a couple of "interest" groups have a lock down on it and don't like to share. Definitely a travesty, because as you said, there's a lot of worthy stuff back there going to waste.

yikes, all this discussion about the word epic reminds me of the endless threads about the term "rice" on the vw forums. even though it only really mattered to a few people, they were vocal about the issue.

most new riders who ride in va will look at the nova epic & say cool, count me in. in fact i'm going to bring along my 10 & 7 yo to do the 15, hopefully they push it up to 20 & find a more reasonable reg fee for kids to join. i'm also going to encourage a few friends new to riding to come along too.

having said that you can't beat laurel hill/accotink/wakefield/ for their first epic, especially when it the same trails they ride pretty regularly.